At the end of last month I started working on tweaking my subtext skin so that I can increase my YSlow score.
What did I do?
- Merged several css files into one sheet
- Merged JavaScript files into one file
- Put items 1/2 files onto a CDN
- Placed site wide images on a CDN
- Moved the JavaScript calls to the bottom of the page
- I also merged xfn icons into one image and used a CSS sprite
Before YSlow:
After making some changes I managed to increase my score by……….
Using the Firefox plug-in httpfox I checked to see what the results were. After removing again web/script resources and Google stuff (total was 24) this is the outcome
Previous totals were Time: 21.202 Sent: 23081 Received: 216529.
After totals are Time: 11.196 Sent: 6066 Received: 133105.
I also reduced the number of http requests from 37 to 13.
I am happy with my score going from F33 to C72. Running the other 2 YSlow tests over my site as the above is YSlow(V1) I get the following results:
- V2 – Grade B score of 80
- Small site or blog – Grade A score of 90
What next?
This was a quick experiment on my homepage to see how easy it was to make a small difference. From what I learned I will be implementing in my new skin hoping to beat the score of 72. I will also be submitting a patch to the subtext project with the xfn css sprite changes i made.
Resources:
- CSS Sprites: What They Are, Why They’re Cool, and How To Use Them
- The Mystery Of CSS Sprites: Techniques, Tools And Tutorials
- Google App Engine
2 Comments
Nick
Thats an impressive score improvement. One thing I have noticed is that alot of people don’t care about the size of their homepage or any other page for that matter as they are lead to believe everyone has a fast internet connection.
When you launch your next skin would be nice to see some sort of checklist you’re following. Are you going to be doing any posts re: new skin too?
Si Philp
Hi Nick,
Was about time I started doing something with my skin as it’s now a bit dated and was very clunky.
I have a list of title headings with notes I have made during the design and development of the new skin but I don’t want to commit till the next version of subtext. I believe skinning has changed. Pointless writing something then it be out of date in the near future lol.